Donald Campbell killed during water speed record attempt 50 years ago - BT Print this story British engineer and racer Donald Campbell died on this day in 1967, while attempting to break his own water speed record in his jet-powered boat, Bluebird K7. Campbell died on Coniston Water in the Lake District, making the required second run of the two-leg attempt to break the record he set in 1964. As the video above recalls, he was less than 400 metres from the end measuring marker and travelling at more than 300mph when the nose of Bluebird rose out of the water, losing stability at a velocity never before achieved in its 12-year history. [Read more: Has the mystery of pilot Amy Johnson’s death finally been solved?] The boat performed almost a complete somersault before smashing back into the lake, disintegrating and killing Campbell instantly. He had recorded a speed of 297mph on the first leg of the attempt, and was said to have reached nearly 320mph on the second when disaster struck.

Divers were sent into the lake, about 120ft deep where the accident occurred, to attempt to recover Campbell’s body, but they were unable to locate him. The speed specialist had broken the water speed record a total of seven times, and was also the last man to hold the land speed record in a wheel-driven, non-jet engine car. To date he remains the only man to hold the water and land speed records simultaneously. What did you make of Donald Campbell’s record-breaking exploits? Do you remember his fatal crash? Let us know in the Comments below. Donald Campbell - Did you know? A world water speed record was officially recognised first in 1928, and in 1930 it was established that to break the record, a craft must be piloted over a timed kilometre course twice, in opposite directions, with the record being the average speed of the two runs. Donald’s father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, had broken the record on four occasions in the 1930s. He also broke the land speed record a remarkable nine times, and was the first man to drive a car at over 300mph.

After breaking the water speed record for a second time on Lake Mead, Nevada in 1955, Campbell was awarded the CBE and turned his attention to the land speed record in his car Bluebird CN7. He suffered a horrific crash at over 360mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA in 1960, receiving a fractured skull and burst eardrum, before finally breaking the record at Lake Eyre in South Australia in July 1964. Campbell, a highly superstitious man, had a mascot in the shape of a teddy bear called Mr. Whoppit, which he carried with him on all his record attempts. The teddy bear was recovered from Coniston Water after his fatal crash. Campbell’s body was finally recovered from the lake in May 2001, still in its blue nylon overalls, by diver Bill Smith’s Bluebird Project, which also discovered all that was left of the boat. Late in January Campbell was posthumously awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct. His water speed record was broken six months later by American Lee Taylor.

According to some sources, attempts to break the water speed record have had an 85 percent fatality rate, making it one of the most hazardous sporting endeavours in the world. Share this BBC ON THIS DAY | 4 | 1967: Campbell killed during record attempt About This Site | Text Only 1967: Campbell killed during record attempt Donald Campbell has been killed a split second before breaking his own water speed record in his jet-powered boat, the Bluebird K7. He was travelling at more than 300mph (483 km/h) on Coniston Water when the boat was catapulted 50ft (15m) into the air after its nose lifted. Forty-six-year-old Mr Campbell was killed instantly as the boat hit the water and immediately disintegrated. Donald was going into the unknown and he was well aware of the risks Norman Buckley He was just 200 yards (183m) from the end of the second leg of his attempt when the accident happened.

On the first leg he had reached speeds of 297mph (478km/h), which meant he had to top 308mph (496km/h) on the return journey. Initial reports suggest he had actually reached speeds of up to 320mph (515km/h). This means the water speed record of 276.33mph (444.61km/h), which Campbell himself set in Australia in 1964, remains unbroken as both legs of the attempt were not completed. Had he broken this barrier it would have been his eighth world water speed record. Divers have attempted to recover Mr Campbell's body which is submerged in more than 120ft (37m) of water, but as yet have been unable to locate him. Norman Buckley, chief observer for the attempt and holder of five water speed records, said: "Donald wanted to put the record so high that it would be unassailable by any foreign competitor.

"I think conditions were as perfect as I have seen them on Coniston, but Donald was going into the unknown and he was well aware of the risks." Mr Campbell's wife, Tonia Bern, flew to Coniston from London late this evening. Donald Campbell. Donald Malcolm Campbell (1921 - 1967) Donald Malcolm Campbell was born on 23rd March, 1921 at Horley, Surrey, he was the son of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who himself held 13 world speed records in the 1920s and 30s, Dorothy Evelyn Whittall, who was his second wife. Donald Campbell married three times, his first wife, Daphne Harvey was the mother of his daughter Georgina, known as Gina, who was born in 1946. In 1952 he married Dorothy McKegg and finally, Tonia Bern in 1958.

After the death of his father in 1948, Donald attempted to set speed records on both land and water, using his father's boat, In September, 1951, Bluebird K4, while travelling at between 160-170 mph, K4 hit a submerged log and sank. It was replaced by Bluebird K7, a jet-propelled 3-point hydroplane. In Bluebird K7 he set seven world water speed records in the years between 1955 and 1964. The first was set at Ullswater on 23rd July 23, 1955 , where he reached a speed of 202.15 mph. Following this success he reached 216 mph in 1955, 225 mph in 1956, 239 mph in 1957, 248 mph in 1958, 260 mph in 1959 and on 31st December, 1964 at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia, he succeeded in reaching 276.33 mph.

In attempting to break his own water speed record of 276.3 m.p.h., Campbell reached a speed of 297m.p.h., on the first of two obligatory runs on Coniston Water on Wednesday 4th January 1967. On his return run travelling at a speed estimated to be in excess of 320m.p.h., his boat, Bluebird K7, somersaulted and plunged back into the water, nose first, disintegrating on impact. Campbell was killed instantly and his body had sunk to the bottom of Coniston Water. An exhaustive search was carried out, which failed to locate his remains. On January 28th, 1967, it was announced that Donald Campbell had been awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct, for 'his courage and determination in attacking the world water speed record'. The remains of the Bluebird were located in 2001, after over four years of diving and surveying, by Bill Smith, an underwater surveyor from Newcastle. The remains lay at 150 feet half buried in silt.

The wreckage of Bluebird was recovered from the lake on 28th March, 2001. A body, found near to the remains of Bluebird, assumed to be that of Campbell himself was retrieved from the lake. In August 2001 the Barrow in Furness coroner came to the decision that based on DNA evidence the remains were those of Donald Campbell. After a funeral service at Coniston Village, attended by his wife and daughter, Gina Campbell, he was finally laid to rest in Coniston churchyard within the village. Duck may have played role in fatal Bluebird crash - Telegraph UK News Duck may have played role in fatal Bluebird crash The mystery behind a jet boat crash that killed world water speed record breaker Donald Campbell may finally have been solved following new analysis of photographs and footage of the accident.

Donald Campbell's Bluebird on Coniston Water in Cumbria, January 4, 1967 Photo: PA By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent 9:00AM BST 09 Oct 2011 A collision with a duck during test runs caused damage to the aerodynamic shape of Bluebird K7 boat leaving its driver fighting to control it as it reached speeds in excess of 300mph, according to experts who have been studying the crash. Fresh analysis of recently unearthed colour footage of the two world record breaking runs along Coniston Water in Cumbria by Campbell in January 4 1967, have also revealed the boat was far less stable at high speeds than its designers had anticipated. Historian Neil Sheppard and physicist Keith Mitchell have conducted frame by frame analysis of the record attempts and found that a sudden loss of thrust, which had been helping to keep the Bluebird under control, resulted in the boat flipping into the air at high speed.

Campbell had been attempting to break his own water speed record of 276mph, which he set in 1964, when the 12-year-old craft somersaulted out of the water on his second run across the lake after reaching an unofficial speed of 330mph, killing him on impact with the water. Mr Sheppard, who has been studying Campbell's exploits for more than 30 years, said the damage to the port side spar, a dangerous bouncing motion as the boat became momentarily airborne at high speed and a sudden loss of thrust combined to cause the crash. Related Articles Body found near Bluebird 29 May 2001 He said: "Bluebird had a tendency to climb out of the water and was carried on a cushion of air with just its stabilising fins and rudder in contact with the water. This produced a heaving motion where the boat lifts up and flops back down. "The Bluebird team had perhaps not appreciated this behaviour of high speed boats and the damage to the spar exacerbated the problem – Campbell would have had to put in a considerable amount of effort to compensate for that.

The wreckage of Bluebird was salvaged from lake bed in 2001 and Campbell's body was also later recovered leading to an inquest into his death. It concluded that waves caused by the wake left behind by his first run across the lake and Campbell's own attempts to decelerate too rapidly had caused the crash. Mr Sheppard and Dr Mitchell's analysis of photographs and footage taken on the day suggest, however, that the boat's engine cut out when Campbell lifted his foot off the throttle, possibly due to a fault that had also occurred in the first run across the lake at lower speeds. Their new theory is presented in a new book launched this weekend Donald Campbell, Bluebird and The Final Record Attempt. They say that combined with the already unstable nature of the boat at such high speed, which caused it to lift out of the water and ride on a cushion of air, the damage caused by the duck meant constant thrust was needed to keep the nose of the boat in the water. A loss of engine power just a few seconds before the crash suggests this led to the bows lifting out of the water, catching the oncoming air stream and resulting in the boat lifting into the air and flipping before crashing back into the water.

Campbell's daughter Gina, who wrote the foreword in the book, said: "Neil's work will help to ensure these two names (Donald Campbell and Bluebird) will remain part of our heritage, in the realm of world land and water speeds, which still thrills the blood of the nation." DONALD CAMPBELL'S DEATH WISH SUICIDAL NERVOUS BREAKDOWN CORONER INQUEST Donald Campbell - cigar in hand playing cards. The dreadful moment when Donald Campbell lost his life is something which an entire generation of people will never forget. Onlookers gathered at Coniston Water on the calm and cold January day in the hope of watching a successful record attempt. Campbell's first run averaged 297.6mph. On the return, however, he peaked at 328mph. Dramatic video footage captured the moment when the boat lifted out of the water like an airplane, flipped over and smashed into the water at 183mph. Campbell was killed instantly. he was driven by the shadow of his father and often spoke of this.

It was just going to be another dash across the lake , but it changed British water speed record history forever and raised many questions as to how and why the speed king died. In 1988 DC's life story was portrayed by actor, Anthony Hopkins , a splendid BBC production that we hope to one day see on Bluray. THE GUARDIAN 26 OCTOBER 2002 - Inquest lays to rest theory of Campbell crash suicide The mystery of how world water speed record holder Donald Campbell died was brought to a conclusion yesterday after more than 35 years, when a coroner decided his death was an accident. Various theories - including suicide - had been put forward for his death on Coniston Water in January 1967 while trying to take his craft Bluebird above 300 mph . They were quickly discounted by the inquest at John Ruskin School, just a few hundred metres from the Cumbrian lake where he perished. The hearing took a dramatic turn when one witness, Julian Happian Smith, an expert in crash dynamics, said that Campbell himself had caused the accident, by easing off on the throttle.

He based his claim on the contentious words "I am drawing back", contained in The Bluebird Years, written by Campbell's friend, Arthur Knowles. Campbell's daughter , Gina , was adamant that her father had never said those words in the moments before the crash. The Furness coroner, Ian Smith, agreed with her, saying there was no evidence before the inquest that Campbell had uttered the words. Mr Smith said: "Donald Campbell was a courageous man and he knew what he was undertaking was inherently dangerous. I was 17 years old when this happened and saw the crash on TV . "He was a hero to me, and my more recent involvement in the story has only consolidated my view of him." Campbell, 45, had been eager to take Bluebird beyond 300mph. He was in high spirits as he set off in his E-type Jaguar , cheerily pipping the horn, for the lake . His team had patiently spent the winter of 1966 holed up at a hotel in Coniston waiting for the right weather and lake conditions. He wanted to better his record so he could attract publicity and fund his attempt to build a Rocket car.

Bluebird's engine, taken from a jet fighter plane, cut out as he began his attempt, but he managed to restart it and accelerate up to 297mph. He then turned to make the re-run (necessary for a world record) but did not stop to refuel, despite it being a protocol established on six previous occasions. The wake created by his first attempt had yet to clear as he reached more than 320mph. Dr Happian Smith also suggested - this time, less controversially - that this rough water was also partially to blame. The craft appeared in some difficulty well before the accident, he told the inquest. At the crash moment Bluebird rose, somersaulted in mid-air, and fell back, striking the water and breaking in two. Mr Campbell was killed instantly, his body receiving multiple fractures. The craft hit with an impact velocity of 185mph, 45 degrees off horizontal and 10 degrees off course, and with its engine cut out. The wreckage and Campbell's body had lain in the lake 150ft below the surface until spring last year, when it was recovered by divers led by William Smith.

He described how his salvage team recovered loose change, a cigarette lighter engraved with facts and figures of Campbell's previous world records, and a gold St Christopher engraved: To Donald, from Daddy, November 1940. The oft-quoted myth that conditions on Coniston Water were like a mirror was finally dispelled yesterday, as was the theory of suicide. "It does not appear to have been like a mirror on the second run," said Mr Smith. "It was on the first one." Ms Campbell, 52, said after the inquest: "We always dismissed the suicide theory. Now it has been completely knocked on the head." Experts say Bluebird simply could not withstand the speed. A new book has finally laid to rest conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Donald Campbell during a world speed record attempt more than 40 years ago. Campbell was killed on Coniston Water in Cumbria in January 1967 when his Bluebird K7 flipped over while traveling at speeds of more than 300mph. The horrific accident has been the subject of fevered speculation ever since. Some people have suggested that Campbell committed suicide while others have speculated that he may have run into obstacles in the water.

But a new book by author Neil Sheppard - called Donald Campbell, Bluebird and the Final Record Attempt - reveals that the record holder unknowingly pushed the boat beyond its physical limits. Mr Sheppard, speaking to The Independent on Sunday, said: 'Campbell was not reckless and at no time, until seconds before disaster, did he think he had exceeded Bluebird's safe operating envelope.' 'He knew he was right on the edge, and was quoted as saying this would be his riskiest record attempt to date, but he did not make his return run too soon, he did not run into any obstacle, or materially adverse water conditions, and he certainly did not have a death wish. 'The basic fact is the Bluebird just went too fast. 'No one involved with her engineering was fully aware that the limit was just above the 300mph mark that Campbell was aiming for.' The author used new material and hundreds of illustrations to carry out a scientific and engineering analysis of the accident. He teamed up with Dr Keith Mitchell, a retired physicist from the Department of Medical Physics at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

And the scientist discovered that at speeds of over 310mph, Bluebird K7, which was built in 1954, was only marginally stable. Mr Campbell's daughter, Gina , told the Independent on Sunday: 'I am so pleased this book puts a stop to all the silly rumours that my father committed suicide or was foolhardy or would do anything stupid. 'It doesn't change the endgame, but it's a big help.' Campbell began using his father's old boat Bluebird K4, but after a structural failure at 170 mph in 1951 he developed the Bluebird K7. He first broke the record in 1955 with a speed of 202mph. That rose to 260mph by 1959. By 1966, his record stood at 276mph. He remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year in 1964. In total he set seven world water speed records in K7 between 1955 and 1964.

Bluebird is being painstakingly rebuilt by Bill Smith, an engineer and diver who found the sunken wreck in March 2001. It will be displayed in the Bluebird Wing of the Ruskin Museum in Coniston when it is completed in 2012 or 2013. BBC NEWS 25 OCTOBER 2002 - Donald Campbell death was accident Speed legend Donald Campbell died accidentally as he attempted to beat his own water speed record in the Lake District in 1967, a coroner has ruled. An inquest in Coniston, Cumbria, heard that one of the reasons for Campbell's Bluebird boat flipping spectacularly in the air was that the water was still ruffled from his first run just moments earlier. Furness coroner Ian Smith said many theories had been suggested including suicide, which he ruled out. Surrey-born Campbell was 45 when he attempted to beat his world record of 267mph on Coniston Water, Cumbria on 4 January, 1967.

Dramatic television footage has shown his Bluebird K7 jetboat rise 30ft into the air and somersault across the water for almost 100 yards, killing Campbell instantly. Mr Smith said many theories surrounded the reason why Campbell's boat left the water. One of the theories was that Bluebird hit a submerged or partially submerged object. Mr Smith said: "There is not a scrap of evidence to that effect. I am happy to dismiss that theory completely." Another theory was that Bluebird ran out of fuel , causing the vessel's nose to lift. Mr Smith said evidence by accident investigator Dr Julian Happian Smith dismissed that theory. The coroner said that the boat contained a maximum of 48 gallons and although Campbell did not refuel after his first run, there would still have been 17 gallons of fuel on board. Mr Smith added: "I do not think he ran out of fuel." The coroner also dismissed the theories that icing on the front of the engine and engine failure caused Bluebird to crash. Mr Smith said he had to touch on the delicate subject that Campbell committed suicide because of the whispers surrounding the theory.

He said Campbell was a publicist's dream, who was good looking, charming, and would have been able to cash in on his amazing success. And there was no reason for him to kill himself. He said: "I have no doubt whatsoever, this was not suicide." Mr Smith, said he hoped that would quash the untrue theory. The coroner said one of the reasons Bluebird left the water was the safety margin in which the boat operated. He said its front could only lift 6 degrees above the level of the water if it was travelling in ideal conditions at 300 mph He said: "If the front moves more than six degrees off that level, then it is likely to become airborne." Campbell was probably travelling in excess of 320mph, which narrows the margin of safety to below six degrees, he added. UNEVEN SURFACE He said: "The lake was not an absolutely smooth, mirrored surface.

"But any slight ripple, however it was caused, by the wind or any other way, will have some effect on the stability of the boat." He said the wake from Campbell's first run may also have caused the rippling of the water, adding another factor into the equation and the reason behind Bluebird going airborne. It was likely Bluebird left the water because it was unbalanced due to factors which included the uneven water surface and the speed at which Campbell was travelling, the coroner said. Mr Campbell's daughter Gina, 52, averted her gaze as the film of the Bluebird's first run and the second, fatal, return run, was shown on a television in the courtroom. Father and son pictured with a early Bluebird LSR vehicle (left) and getting a taste for boating (right), young Donald visibly inspired by his famous father, as you may imagine from the goggles he is wearing - carried on with his love of helmets, and support from Tonia Bern and much of Australia , where he was better received.

DAILY EXPRESS OCTOBER 11 2011 - Donald Campbell would detest our risk averse world The last words of a man who must have known he was facing certain death: "I'm getting a lot of bloody row in here. I canï¿½t see anything. Iï¿½ve got the bows out. Iï¿½m going...ï¿½ In recent years it has become fashionable to portray Donald Campbell, as his boat Bluebird K7 lifted out of the water while attempting to break his own water speed record on Coniston Water on January 4, 1967, as foolish and reckless if not actually insane. There are various theories that he was undergoing a mental breakdown, that he was consumed by his own superstitions after drawing an unlucky hand at cards the previous day, that his last record attempt was really an act of suicide. That is not how it appeared at the time. Just 24 days after his death Campbell was awarded the Queenï¿½s Commendation for Brave Conduct ï¿½for courage and determination in attacking the world speed recordï¿½. It is not how Campbellï¿½s biographer Neil Sheppard sees it either.

In a new book Donald Campbell, Bluebird And The Final Record Attempt he concludes that Campbell died simply because he and his engineering team were unaware of how close they were pushing the boat to its limits. Unknown to Campbell and his engineers there was no way anyone could have taken the boat to 315mph ï¿½ Bluebirdï¿½s speed as it lifted out of the water ï¿½ and survived. BY TODAYï¿½S standards that qualifies as the height of recklessness. Who now would venture out in a boat at 315mph without first testing a computer simulation of the craft? But in 1967 the computing power available was minuscule compared with that of today. If you wanted to break a speed record you had to take a chance with your life. We too easily assume that Campbell must have had a death wish because in our pampered, risk-averse society we no longer understand the physical dangers which pioneers had to face in order to push back the boundaries of human achievement. It wasnï¿½t just the water speed record it was just about every form of engineering.

When we get on a plane for our holidays we take it for granted that we will survive and in the incredibly unlikely event that we donï¿½t we expect that our heirs will sue the airline for gross negligence. That is not unreasonable ï¿½ air travel has become extremely safe and there is no excuse for an airline to cut corners. But we should never forget that it would not have been possible for air travel to exist at all had it not been for reckless Edwardian gentlemen taking gambles with their lives ï¿½ gambles which they often lost. If we do not take risks we do not learn. The biggest tragedy will be if we become so averse to danger that progress comes to a halt. Maybe we are already close to that stage. The most remarkable thing about Campbellï¿½s fatal last voyage was that he so very nearly established a record that could have stood to this day. Campbellï¿½s record attempt was declared null and void because he failed ï¿½ by just 200 metres ï¿½ to reach the end of the measured kilometre. Yet 44 years later the world water speed record at 317mph is just 2mph higher than his last measured speed.

And even that record, established by Australian Ken Warby , is 33 years old. There is a team at Salford University ï¿½ Quicksilver ï¿½ which is designing a boat to break this record but a planned attempt on Coniston Water in 2009 failed to materialise. The lake is now subject to a speed limit of 10 knots, which the Lake District National Park Authority has said it will temporarily lift for a genuine record attempt. But Quicksilverï¿½s website goes through endless procedures which must be carried out before getting permission. It says it has undertaken ï¿½some preliminary environmental protection studiesï¿½ and consulted with numerous bodies including the National Trust and Coniston parish council. And it doesnï¿½t suggest it has even got as far as approaching the local authorityï¿½s ï¿½elf & safety team. One feels that Campbell would probably by now have packed up and gone home, not frightened by the prospect of death but crushed by modern bureaucracy . IT IS perhaps only thanks to the memory of Campbell that the authorities are prepared even to consider new water speed record attempts in the Lake District.

Not that there are many record speed attempts going on elsewhere in the world. Quietly, mankind seems to have stopped breaking speed records and pushing other boundaries. The land speed record ï¿½ set by British driver Andy Green in Utah ï¿½ is 14 years old. Supersonic passenger air travel ï¿½ which arrived with Concordeï¿½s first commercial flight in 1976 ï¿½ is now part of aviation history. It is 39 years since a man last stood on the Moon . The idea of putting a man on Mars, to which Nasa committed itself in the late Sixties, now seems a pipe dream. Even if the US government was prepared to spend the money it is questionable whether Nasa would consider launching someone on such a dangerous mission. This is not the attitude on which great civilisations are built. The footage of Donald Campbellï¿½s last mission ï¿½ delivered in clipped tones on British Movietone News ï¿½ stands out as a relic from a more adventurous and more ambitious age. We should be impressed by him rather than think he was driven by a death wish.

APRIL 2014 - An exhibition at the Museum in Leatherhead featured a model of the CN7 Bluebird, on loan from Brooklands . WHAT IS A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN Many people classify a nervous breakdown as a ï¿½mental breakdownï¿½ and the two are linked. A nervous breakdown is a subtype of mental breakdown that involves intense feelings of anxiety and stress ï¿½ this is what causes us to react with our ï¿½nervesï¿½ and we feel ï¿½nervous.ï¿½ A nervous breakdown is typically caused by excessive activation of the sympathetic nervous system - as for example when under intense pressure to achieve a speed record. This triggers a ï¿½fight or flightï¿½ response in the body and results in intense feelings of anxiety and tension. The anxiety becomes so overwhelming that the subject is unable to cope with life. During this experience, you may feel as though life is completely hopeless and that you will never recover or return to normal. It can be difficult to cope with these symptoms because your body is either in a state of hyperarousal or is transitioning into one.

You may feel as if you are going crazy and may experience rapid thinking, feel depressed, and suicidal. Your outlook on the future may seem bleak and things may feel as if they are never going to be the same. The good news is that many people have experienced nervous breakdowns to a very severe degree and have made full recoveries back to biopsychosocial homeostasis. A nervous breakdown is somewhat proportionate to the build-up or onset length of the symptoms. That Donald Campbell was under extreme financial pressure as one of the reasons for chasing his own tail (records) is another factor that suggests that DC could very well have been entertaining suicidal thoughts . In such a mental state , he may well have thrown caution to the wind in pushing the K7 that but harder than a rational man have thought prudent. On that basis, you may come to the irresistible conclusion that Donald Campbell took his own life, or you may be more gracious and agree that a reckless hand on a jet engine throttle leads to a very rare method of ending it all - from which there is no turning back. Indeed, when Donald tried to pull back, that was his very undoing. The blue bird legend goes on.

The classic lines of the stunning BE3 electric racing car were inspired by Reid Railton and his designs for the Napier Lion and Rolls Royce engined Blue Bird LSR cars in the 1930s. The Blueplanet BE3 features instant battery recharging using the patent Bluebird ï¿½ cartridge exchange system under license from BMS . This high performance WLSR car is also solar assisted. She is designed for speeds in excess of 350mph across a flying mile using clean electricity. It is unlikely that a member of the Campbell family will pilot her, where so many good Formula 1 and Formula E drivers have more competition skills. Imagine the spectacle of this beautiful vehicle speeding across the salt at Bonneville , or flying past on the sand on the Daytona or Pendine beaches. The BE3 is available for event hire , drive-by and the like on 6 months notice, or 3 months notice at increased cost.

Jean Wales - Telegraph Jean Wales 12:01AM BST 30 Jun 2007 Jean Wales, who died on Tuesday aged 83, was the daughter of Sir Malcolm Campbell and the sister of Donald Campbell, the men who between them broke more than 20 world speed and distance records on land and water during the last century. Donald was killed on Coniston Water in the Lake District on January 4 1967 while attempting to break 300mph in his boat Bluebird K7. Neither he nor the boat were recovered from the lake until 2001. Jean Wales, along with Donald's daughter Gina, provided DNA samples to confirm that the body was his. Jean Wales had, however, been against the recovery of her brother's body out of respect for his stated wish that, in the event of something going wrong, "Skipper and boat stay together". When Donald Campbell was buried in Coniston cemetery on September 12 2001 she did not attend the service; nor did she afterwards visit his grave. Jean Dorothy Campbell was born in London on September 30 1923, two years after her brother.

In the year of her birth her father Sir Malcolm bought Povey Cross House, near Horley in Surrey, where the family lived in some style, with a governess, housekeeper, butler, cook, maid, gardeners and more than 20 dogs; there was also a private nine-hole golf course. In the grounds Sir Malcolm built a summer house where the two children would sleep on summer nights. Jean "adored" her brother, telling an interviewer last year: " We both loved speed and we got into terrible scrapes and trouble because of it. We tore up the asphalt tennis court racing around in our cars. Dad was furious." As young children they were given, by the motor manufacturers, pedal versions of their cars: Donald had a Bugatti, Jean a Bluebird. "We used to race them up and down the drive and around the garden," she recalled. "We would have terrible collisions, flying round corners and meeting each other head-on. There was blood everywhere. "Dad never minded us racing around as long as it was in the driveway, but when he caught us cycling in the lavender garden we were smacked and sent to bed. On another occasion we set fire to the haystacks playing fire engines.

Dad had to call the fire brigade." One Christmas Eve, when they went to bed the children tied a long piece of string between their toes so that when Father Christmas entered their room they would wake up; when Sir Malcolm crept in some hours later he indeed woke them, tripping over the string and sending their presents crashing to the floor. By the time Jean left boarding school the war was on, and she served as a Land Girl in Surrey. Thereafter she never worked, being fortunate enough to enjoy a private income. She accompanied her father to Coniston in 1947-48 when he was attempting to break a record in a new jet boat, and shortly afterwards married her first husband, Brian Hulme. Hulme, with whom Jean was to have two sons, was Donald Campbell's best friend and an astute businessman who founded the Sandhurst stationery business, becoming a rich man in the process. But the marriage foundered, and the couple divorced in 1956. In 1958 Jean married Lt-Col Charles Wales, a former tank instructor, with whom she was to find lasting happiness.

A trained engineer 17 years her senior, Wales was working for a firm in Yorkshire when they met; after they married he left his job to set up as a small wine importer. The couple lived first in Surrey, then moved to Piltdown, Sussex, where Jean Wales concentrated on gardening, bridge and golf - she was an excellent golfer, with a single-figure handicap, and played for the county. Charles Wales died in 1991. The Wales's son, Don, is a professional photographer but has inherited the Campbells' love of speed. He holds eight UK speed records for electric cars, including the current record of 137mph set on Pendine Sands in south Wales, where his grandfather set his first world record in 1924. Jean Wales fully supported her son in these ambitions, although the debts he inevitably incurred caused her much anxiety. He is currently trying to raise £2½ million to allow him to set a new record at Bonneville, Utah, where Sir Malcolm became, in 1935, the first person to break 300mph.

1000+ images about Bluebird K7 on Pinterest | Bluebirds, Donald o'connor and Boats Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Bluebird K7 Currently being painstakingly reconstructed in North Shields, K7 may well plane on Coniston Water again before moving to her new home at the Ruskin Museum. 48 Pins38 Followers Bluebird reborn: Legendary speedboat that killed tragic Donald Campbell is rebuilt from wreckage | Daily Mail Online Bluebird reborn: Legendary speedboat that killed tragic Donald Campbell is rebuilt from wreckage comments The legendary record breaking Bluebird superboat in which speed-king Donald Campbell died after crashing at 328mph is to live again - 45 years after the tragic accident that sealed both their fates. The wreck of the jet-powered Bluebird K7, which sank to the bottom of Lake Coniston in January 1967 before being found and raised by divers in 2001, is now being re-assembled piece by piece. The aim is to put the phoenix-like reconstructed craft back on the water in a year's time - and run it at speeds of up to 100mph.

State-of-the-art: The Bluebird K7 is reconstructed by a team of experts. This still image is taken from a sequence using 3-D graphics to recreate Donald Campbell's tragic final journey Grainy black and white film footage of the crash involving one of the UK's most famous speed-record champions has become an iconic image of a bygone age of British derring do and pluck, tinged with tragedy. Now the remarkable story of the Bluebird's phoenix-like rebirth is chronicled in a new television documentary called 'Bluebird: The Spirit Reborn' to be broadcast on Christmas Eve (Friday 24th December at 19.30 on Sky News and Sky News HD). A team from Sky News has not only followed the Bluebird project for an exclusive behind the scenes look at the re-build, it has also used hi-tech 3-D computer graphics to recreate second-by-second the crash and help pinpoint exactly what went wrong in the fatal record attempt run.

Iconic: This image of Donald Campbell's Bluebird hydroplane was taken on Coniston Water, Cumbria, on the day it flipped over and crashed as he tried to break his own world water speed record Backed by the pilot's daughter, Gina Campbell, a small team of diving enthusiasts and volunteer engineers based in a workshop in North Shields on Tyneside is putting the original Bluebird back together using 90 per cent of the original parts and fabric - even removing and then replacing thousands of individual rivets. The team also have a pilot to take the finished boat back onto the water at Coniston for its 100mph run. Campbell smashed the world water speed record seven times in Bluebird K7 which was built in 1954. But in his final attempt when he pushed the by now ageing craft - designed to do no more than 250mph - beyond its endurance to 328mph. It lifted out of the water like an aeroplane, flipped over, and smashed into the water at 183mph, throwing 50 tons of spray into the air before it sank 40 metres underwater to remain there for 34 years.

The Sky News documentary notes of the reconstructed graphic of the accident: 'For the first time we can see what happened to Donald Campbell and his boat. 'On that morning in January 1967, Donald Campbell set out to make the two runs necessary to establish a new water speed record. 'According to new analysis of this footage of the first run, alarm bells should have been ringing at this point. The film clearly shows Bluebird’s front end lifting briefly out of the water after he’d hit 310 miles an hour. Minutes later, Campbell would ask even more of her but his luck was about to run out.' Crash: This graphic shows the moment Bluebird flipped as Donald Campbell reached speeds of over 300mph Shattered: Bluebird disintegrated into hundreds of pieces as it crashed into the water It adds: 'Campbell broke with protocol now and began his second run without getting the all clear from his course marshal. The ageing Bluebird had been originally designed for no more than 250 miles an hour, Campbell would push her to a destabilising 328mph on water still choppy from his first run. 'Exactly ten seconds before the final impact, she began a series of increasingly violent bounces.

Campbell was in real trouble. On the third bounce the jet engine cut out, without its thrust it was impossible to keep Bluebird’s nose down. We now know that the boat came down on her side, hitting the surface at 183 miles an hour. Water punched through the cockpit, tearing it apart.' The boat somersaulted spectacularly before sinking to the bottom of the lake. Campbell's daughter Gina is enthused by the project to rebuild her father's craft: 'I'm envisaging an enormous public response to coming to hear it and to see it. I think it will send the shivers up a lot of people's spines, I can almost feel it now, in fact I am tingling. It will be a thrill to see and to hear and to smell. 'She was a beautiful, beautiful piece of machinery.' Resurrection: The remains of Sir Donald Campbell's Bluebird are brought to the surface of Coniston Water in the Lake District March 8, 2001 She said her father was inspirational: 'I was 17 when my dad died, I had wonderful years with him.

I still feel him around me in various things I do.' Bluebird project leader Bill Smith says he too gets 'goose-bumps' recollecting his part in the team which in 2001 found and raised the wreckage of the legendary but ill-fated craft: 'It was just as though somebody, in the pitch dark at the bottom of the lake with my nerves strung like wire, grabbed me by the foot. What a fright! Your blood runs cold.' He then spotted 'a crumpled mass of tin with blue paint' and then the Union Jack on the tail-fin and realised he'd finally found Bluebird. Three months later the team recovered the body of Donald Campbell who is buried in Coniston cemetery.

Tragic: Donald Campbell's wife Tonia Bern leans on the fairing to talk with her husband in the narrow cockpit of the Bluebird car, which was shown to the public for the first time in Goodwood, Sussex Rebuild: Bluebird project leader Bill Smith says he too gets 'goose-bumps' recollecting his part in the team which in 2001 found and raised the wreckage of the legendary but ill-fated craft Engineer Mr Smith of bluebirdproject.com which is backed by voluntary donations said: 'No one in their right mind would repair such a thing'. He notes: 'It was almost lost. All you had were the pictures and a little bit of black and white footage of the crash and what we want to give back is something that has been built to the absolutely highest possible standard.' Although they had the drawings from 1954, they swiftly realised Campbell made modifications on the hoof which required detective work:' 'A good example would be that down in the foot well is a little guard alongside of the throttle pedal, presumably to keep his trousers out of the workings.

That was never drawn but we found it in the wreckage and put it back.' Donald Campbell died trying to live up to the achievements of his speed record breaking father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, and Bluebird shares its name with the series of high speed aerodynamic cars in which both Campbell's smashed records. Bluebird historian and author Neil Sheppard believes that Donald Campbell had become 'trapped' in his obsession to reach 300 miles an hour:'I think he was under enormous pressure. 'But a speed of 328 miles an hour is the very edge of the envelope of that boat and at that speed a set of circumstances set itself in motion from which he couldn’t escape.' Robbie Robinson, who was part of Campbell's original support team and first on the scene when Bluebird crashed tells the Sky documentary team: 'When they finally pulled it out and you could see the devastation at the front end of the boat and how it had been just ripped apart. That was quite disturbing.' But he said: 'It’s the reincarnation of Bluebird.

What it really means is it will be this permanent memorial to the man, Donald Campbell, that I knew and respected so much, to rise again like the phoenix.' :: 'Bluebird: The Spirit Reborn' to be broadcast on Christmas Eve,Friday 24th December at 19.30 on Sky News and Sky News HD. Repeated Wednesday 29th and Friday 31st December at 19.30. :: See the boat's reconstruction: bluebirdproject.com

Question: On which lake was Sir Donald Campbell killed in 1967 while attempting to break the World water-speed record?
Answer: Coniston Water